14. LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION-POLICIES-IN-SOUTHEAST-ASIA

LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION-POLICIES-IN-SOUTHEAST-ASIA

1. SOUTHEAST ASIA COUNTIES

2. The Southeast Asia Countries Brunei Darussalam Cambodia Indonesia Lao PDR Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Malaysia Timor Leste Vietnam

3. Language in Education Policies in Southeast Asia

4. SEAMEO Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) - is a regional intergovernmental organization established in 1965 among governments of Southeast Asian countries to promote regional cooperation in education, science, and culture in the region.

5. Language in Education Policies in Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a culturally and linguistically diverse region. All Southeast Asian nations have their respective dominant ethnolinguistic groups and national/ official languages, but that does not contradict their great cultural and linguistic diversity. There are around 1,000 languages that are spoken in the region.

6. 17 19 22 30 84 86 104 113 147 180 742

7. Brunei Darussalam -is the smallest Southeast Asian nation in terms of population. It is ethnically and linguistically diverse. Most of the population belongs to various Malay groups, speaking several Malay languages. In the table shown earlier, It is estimated that seventeen languages are spoken in Brunei. Brunei is the only SEAMEO country where the use of local languages in education is legally proscribed.

8. The Bilingual Education Policy in Brunei demonstrated a consistent focus on promoting bilingual education. The education system uses Standard Malay and English as the media of instruction, according to a language policy emphasizing bilingualism in those languages. Standard Malay and English- used as the media of instruction by the education system, according to a language policy emphasizing bilingualism in those languages. Standard Malay is used more at the pre-primary level and in the early grades of primary education while English is a more prominent medium at higher levels of learning.

9. S tandard Malay - as used in Peninsular Malaysia, is the official language according to the Constitution of 1959. However, it is only used to formal situations like government, business, and education, and is not generally current in daily interpersonal communication. Brunei Malay - The most widely spoken language in the country, which serves as the medium of wider communication, and is spoken as the first language by a vast majority of the population.

10. Indonesia, with more than 740 languages, is linguistically the most diverse country in all of Asia. It is second globally after Papua New Guinea, where some 850 languages are spoken. The official and national language – according to the 1945 Constitution – is Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). Indonesian is also the language of instruction at all levels of education. Indonesia

11. The Indonesian Constitution of 1945 guarantees the use and development of non-dominant languages and encourages people to use, develop, and preserve their local languages. Law No. 20 of 2003 (Chapter VII, Article 33, Section 2) - states that a mother tongue other than Indonesian can be used as the language of instruction in the early stages of education, if needed in the delivery of particular knowledge and/or skills.

12. In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR or Laos), the estimated number of languages spoken is eighty-six. According to the Constitution of 1991, Lao is the official language, and the Lao script is the official script. Lao is the dominant language in the country, with more than 3 million first language speakers. Lao PDR

13. Khmu - spoken by the largest ethnolinguistic minority and accounting for around 11% of the national population, and Hmong - with around 8% (Lao PDR, 2007), though there are actually two Hmong languages subsumed by this title. The Education Law of 2000 - stipulates the use of Lao in education and can be interpreted to allow the use of Lao only ( Kosonen , 2007; Lao PDR, 2008, Leclerc, 2009; UNESCO, 2008).

14. National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP, 2006) - promotes the use, learning, and teaching of NDLs that already have orthographies. The Plan also promotes the further development and maintenance of NDLs as steps in developing the poorest areas of the country. Lao People’s Party (2007) - proposes further research on orthography development in non-dominant languages, and recommends that minority language orthographies be based on the Lao-script to contribute to the quality teaching of Lao to non-Lao speakers.

15. Malaysia It is estimated that about 140 languages are spoken in Malaysia. The Malays, the dominant ethnolinguistic group, make up about the half of the total population. The population of some ethnolinguistic minorities is in the millions. The Constitution of 1957 establishes Standard Malay (Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Melayu ) as the official and national language. The Constitution also guarantees people’s freedom to use, teach, and learn any language, as well as the preservation and maintenance of non-dominant languages.

16. Education Act 1961 - The education act applied to all levels of education where Malay language is used as the medium of instructions in schools, all schools have a common curriculum and a public examination will be administered for all schools ( Puteh , 2010). The National Education was implemented in 1970 where English medium schools were gradually converted to national schools where Malay language was not only used as the medium of instruction but learnt as a subject in both primary and secondary schools. English language at this stage was gradually phased out but retained as an important L2 subject taught in schools.

17. The National Education Policy in 1970 has a major reformation of the education system in 1979 was the implementation of the New Primary Schools Curriculum or Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) a in 1983 and the Integrated Secondary School Curriculum or Kaurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menegah (KBSM) in 1989. Both these curricula were fully implemented by 2020.

18. Government system of formal education has two kinds of schools: 1.) National Primary Schools - The national primary schools use Standard Malay as the main language of instruction, whereas mathematics and science are taught in English. ‘Pupil’s Own Language’ (POL) – a studied subject where their medium were Malay Tamil and Mandarin, as well as other non-dominant languages, including ethnolinguistic minority languages. This subject is offered on some conditions: there are at least fifteen students whose parents request a mother tongue class, and teachers and materials for the language in question are available.

19. 2.) National-Type Primary Schools - The national-type primary schools use some other language, such as Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, or an alternative Indian language, as the main medium of instruction, and mathematics and science are taught in that language and English In the East Malaysian state of Sarawak, Iban has been taught as a school subject for several years. In the state of Sabah, also in East Malaysia, Kadazandusun has been taught in government schools for some time. In Peninsular Malaysia, an Orang Asli language called Semai is being taught in some government schools.

20. In terms of language diversity, the Philippines is second only to Indonesia in Southeast Asia, as 180 languages are estimated to be spoken in the country (Ethnologue, 2008). Languages such as Bicol, Cebuano, Illongo, Ilocano, and Tagalog are spoken by millions of people and widely used as languages of wider communication in their respective areas. Orthographies already exist in most of the languages, and more than 100 languages possess written materials. Philippines

21. According to the 1987 Constitution , the national language is Filipino (based on Tagalog), and Filipino and English are the official languages. The Bilingual Education Policy of 1974, revised in 1987 , states that English and Filipino are the languages of education and the official languages of literacy. The goal of the bilingual policy is to create a population bilingual in the official languages. Since the 1987 revised policy, regional non-dominant languages have been elevated to the role of auxiliary languages. In practice, however, this has usually meant that NDLs are used orally to explain the curriculum to students, rather than using them seriously as media of instruction.

22. When the learners’ home language has been used as the language of instruction, learning achievement has clearly improved. The use of NDLs varies, depending on the teachers and the availability of learning materials in those languages. Nevertheless, as orthographies of most of the languages are fairly similar, many people literate in Filipino can often quite easily transfer their literacy skills into their mother tongue. In the Philippines, non-dominant languages are used in education, particularly in nonformal education, perhaps more widely than in other Southeast Asian countries. Still, Filipino and English continue as the main languages of education throughout the nation, even after recent debates over current policy and the importance of the learners’ home language in education.

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